BPOS: Adding Your Own Domain

When signing up for MOS, you are required to enter a domain name. The resultant domain name becomes the name you entered along with the suffix of .microsoftonline.com. So therefore, when using the Exchange Online Services, the emails addresses will look like name@mydomain.microsoftonline.com. It is probably more desirable to have emails like name@mydomain.com instead. If you have a domain name registered, you can easily add it to BPOS.

After successfully subscribing to MOS and accessing the administration center, one of the first tasks listed is to add a domain:

Click on that task to initiate an easy-to-use wizard interface. The first step is actually enter the domain name:

Enter the domain name and leave the Type as Autoritative if you want Exchange Online Services to manage all mail from the domain. Click Create. The system will add the domain to BPOS and present a confirmation message:

Your domain needs to be verified. Leave the Start Verification checked and click Finish. The verification screen appears with specific instructions:

You must now open a new browser window and navigate to your domain administration page. This will vary depending on your domain provider. Within the DNS management of your domain administration, add a new CNAME entry using the host name provided on the Verification dialog which points to the specified Exchange mail address.

The dialog states to wait 15 minutes for the change to propagate but I believe I only waited a few minutes (so timing could vary). Once you figure it is enough time, click the Verify button. MOS will attempt to verify the domain and will present a confirmation if successful:

This only allows you to add the domain but does nothing with the email yet. Enabling the email handling requires an additional set of steps provided by the link in the confirmation screen. The steps are fairly easy.

Essentially you navigate to the Domains listing in the MOS Administration center which is located under teh Users tab. Select the added domain in the listing and click the Edit button. The domain properties dialog appears. Select the Inbound Messaging tab:

Click the Enable button to enable incoming email. Don't worry about the MX instructions yet as they will still be there upon confirmation. The confirmation appears after the incoming mail has been enabled:

Now you need to go back to your DNS management and change the MX entry as explained in the instructions. Once completed click Finish.

To test the emails you need to have the email account within Outlook. While this can be done manually, after downloading and installing the MOS Sign In Application, you will be able to select the Outlook Email option and configure it locally. The configuration will create a new mail box and profile accordingly.

So that's about it! Once you follow these steps your domain will be added to MOS/BPOS and you can use a normal email address accordingly - all without having to run an Exchange Server in yoiur basement.

NOTE: The Admin account will still have the microsoftonline.com version of the domain -  not that this makes a difference. However, to make signing in easier, you may want the Admin account to have the same domain. When looking at the Admin user properties, the domain selection is disabled. You need to create a real user and grant them Administrative rights. Then log in as that user and modify the Admin account. You will be able to change the domain of the Admin.